Pennsylvania Farming - (Regional) by Sally McMurry (Hardcover)

About the Book

Pennsylvania Farming presents the first history of Pennsylvania agriculture in more than sixty years. Sally McMurry goes beyond a strictly economic approach and considers the diverse forces that helped shape the farming landscape, from physical factors to cultural repertoires to labor systems. Above all, the people who created and worked on Pennsylvania's farms are placed at the center of attention. More than 150 photographs inform the interpretation, which offers a sweeping look at the evolution of Pennsylvania's agricultural landscapes right up to the present day.

Book Synopsis

Since precolonial times, agriculture has been deeply woven into the fabric of Pennsylvania's history and culture. Pennsylvania Farming presents the first history of Pennsylvania agriculture in more than sixty years, and offers a completely new perspective. Sally McMurry goes beyond a strictly economic approach and considers the diverse forces that helped shape the farming landscape, from physical factors to cultural repertoires to labor systems. Above all, the people who created and worked on Pennsylvania's farms are placed at the center of attention. More than 150 photographs inform the interpretation, which offers a sweeping look at the evolution of Pennsylvania's agricultural landscapes right up to the present day.

Review Quotes

An outstanding contribution to scholarship on Pennsylvania's historic agriculture. Merging lively writing with a careful use of documentary sources and field research, the book explores one of the nation's oldest and most complex ecological and cultural regions to arrive at sensible explanations about why things in the Keystone State look the way they do and how they got that way.-- "Ritchie Garrison, University of Delaware"

Historical, social, economic, and cultural forces intersected to shape Pennsylvania's agricultural landscapes. Pennsylvania Farming shows how common farm buildings and landscape features such as cisterns, contour strips, and tree lines can be 'read' to reveal a complex layered history that offers a historical perspective on modern-day issues such as sustainability, local foods, diversification, and small-scale agriculture.-- "Gabrielle M. Lanier, James Madison University"

About the Author

SallyMcMurry is professor emerita of history at Pennsylvania State Universityand former president of the Agricultural History Society. She is the author ofseveral books on landscape and architectural history, including most recently From Sugar Camps to Star Barns: Rural Lifeand Landscape in a Western Pennsylvania Community.